Mystagogic Catechesis 4: Concerning Christ'S Body And Blood
MYSTAGOGIC CATECHESIS 4: Concerning Christ's body and blood
Reading: 1 Cor 11.23ff: ‘For I received from the Lord the account which I passed on to you…’
1 This teaching of blessed Paul is sufficient to give us assurance concerning the sacred mysteries to which you were admitted when you became ‘of one body’ (Eph 3.6) and one blood with Christ. For we heard Paul declare just now: ‘For on the night on which our Lord Jesus Christ was betrayed, taking bread and giving thanks he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying: “Take, eat, this is my body.” And taking the cup and giving thanks he said: “Take, drink, this is my blood.”’ Since then Christ himself taught us concerning the bread, saying: ‘This is my body’, who will dare to doubt any more? And since he has declared explicitly: ‘This is my blood’, who will ever hesitate and say it is not his blood?
2 Once at Cana in Galilee Jesus changed the water into wine by his own will. Isn't it reasonable then to believe that he changed wine into blood? When he was invited to a human wedding he performed this marvellous miracle; isn't it much more believable that he gave the ‘sons of the bridegroom’ (Mk 2.19) the enjoyment of his own body and blood?
3 So we receive with full assurance that what we are receiving is a share in Christ's body and blood. For in the form of bread you are given his body, and in the form of wine you are given his blood, so that by partaking of Christ's body and blood you may become of one body and one blood with Christ. In this way we become Christ-bearers, as his body and blood are spread around our limbs. Thus we become in blessed Peter's words ‘sharers of his divine nature’ (cf. 2 Pet 1.4).
4 In an address to the Jews Christ once said: ‘Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you do not have life within you’ (Jn 6.53). Failing to understand the spiritual meaning of his words, they took scandal and departed, believing that the Saviour was urging them to cannibalism.
5 In the Old Testament there were ‘Loaves of the Presence’ (Exod 25.30; Lev 24.5–9; 1 Sam 21.2–6), but as they belonged to the Old Testament they came to an end. In the New Testament there is the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation, which sanctify both body and soul. Just as the bread is suitable for the body, so the Word is adapted to the soul.
6 So do not regard them as ordinary bread and wine, for they are the body and blood according to the Lord's declaration. For though your senses suggest this to you, let your faith reassure you. Do not judge by the taste, but draw from your faith unhesitating confidence that you have been granted Christ's body and blood.
7 Blessed David hints at what this means when he says: ‘You have prepared a table before me in the face of those who afflict me.’ He means something like this: Before your coming the demons prepared for human beings a table that was polluted and defiled, filled with diabolical power; but after your coming, Lord, you prepared a table before me. When a man says to God: ‘You have prepared a table before me’, what else can it mean if not this mystical, spiritual table which God has prepared ‘in the face of’ the demons, that is, against or in opposition to them. The words are appropriate, for the one table involved communion with demons, the other involves communion with God. ‘You have anointed my head with oil.’ He anointed your head on the forehead with oil, by means of the seal which you receive from God, to make you ‘the engraving of a signet: “Holy to the Lord”’. ‘And your cup which inebriates me, how strong it is!’ (Ps 22 (23).5 (LXX)). As you can see, this refers to the cup which Jesus took into his hands and blessed saying: ‘This is my blood which is shed for many for the forgiveness of their sins.’
8 It is in reference to this grace that Solomon says enigmatically in Ecclesiastes: ‘Come, eat your bread with gladness’ (this spiritual bread). ‘Come’ (the author issues the saving invitation that offers happiness), ‘and drink your wine with a good heart’ (the spiritual wine), ‘and let oil be poured over your head’ (do you notice that the author is hinting at the mystic anointing with chrism?), and ‘let your garments always be white’, ‘because the Lord has approved of your deeds’.
Now that you have taken off your old garments and put on ones that are spiritually white, you must wear white always. Of course, I do not mean that you must always be dressed in white garments, but that you must always be dressed in garments that are truly white and shining and spiritual, so that you can say with blessed Isaiah: ‘Let my soul rejoice in the Lord, for he has clothed me in the garment of salvation and arrayed me in the tunic of gladness.’ (Is 61.10).
9 You have learnt with full assurance that what looks like bread, despite its taste, is not bread but Christ's body; that what looks like wine is not wine, despite what its taste suggests, but Christ's blood; and that this is what David long ago was referring to in the psalm: ‘and bread strengthens the human heart, to make his face joyful with oil’ (Ps 103 (104).15 (LXX)). So strengthen your heart by partaking of this bread in the knowledge that it is spiritual, and make the face of your soul joyful. So with a ‘pure conscience’ (1 Tim 3.9; 2 Tim 1.3), ‘with face unveiled’, ‘and reflecting the glory of God’, may you go forward ‘from glory to glory’ (2 Cor 3.18) in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is the glory for ever and ever. Amen.